


A Dream of the Past

by Warmebrisevommeer



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bulky Link, Comfort/Angst, Consensual kiss, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gentle Kissing, Heavy Rain - Freeform, Kissing, Kissing in the Rain, Link (Legend of Zelda) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda) Fluff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Calamity Ganon, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romantic Angst, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Gestures, Romantic Soulmates, True Love's Kiss, Unresolved Romantic Tension, romantic kiss, scarred Link
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29176011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warmebrisevommeer/pseuds/Warmebrisevommeer
Summary: Link and Zelda finally defeated Ganon and as they rode through Hyrule to reach Kakariko, heavy rain fell from the sky and forced them to cover in an old barn.Link felt that Zelda was no longer herself; more fragile, more sensitive and full of sorrow. Her soul was shattered, and it hurt in every inch of his body. He felt her shoulders begin to shake, again struggling with her heart.Will Link be able to soothe Zelda's pain despite having his own mental issues?
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Kudos: 19





	A Dream of the Past

Together we rode through the wind and weather as the rain whipped into our faces and soaked through our clothes to the skin. From then on, I watched Zelda to see if she managed to keep up, or if the heaviness from the relentless rain affected her too much. She was too stubborn to admit that she had reached her limit and pushed herself beyond it. As far as I could remember, she had been like this before the calamity, spending hours in the sacred waters of the springs to awaken her strength.

Slowly a memory crept into my consciousness that I thought I had forgotten:

I watched over the entrance to the spring of power while Zelda prayed until the early hours of the night, however without success. She opened her heart to me and revealed her sorrows and grief, then when I heard her voice tremble, I knew she was fighting back her tears and turned to her. As her chosen knight, I was not allowed to watch her pray, let alone look at her during this sacred ritual in her white dress that had become transparent from the water. But I had to do it, as her best friend and closest companion.

_The bright moonlight illuminated her bare shoulders, while half of her face remained in darkness. Her right green eye reflected the light of the moon as tears ran down her face. So far I remembered through the images in the Sheikah Stone, but what came next struck like a fallen star to the ground._

_I sheathed my master sword and, defying the resistance of the holy water, ran to her. I barely managed to catch her as she collapsed clutching at my arms. She was exhausted, physically as well as mentally. Sobbing and trembling, she cried her soul out as I held her head tightly against me._

_“Link, why does it hurt so much? This burden on my heart, I can hardly endure it and feel myself drowning. Link. Please reach out your hand to me and pull me out of this darkness of uncertainty!” Zelda’s voice trembled and broke off as she lifted her head in my arms and looked up at me. Her eyes were reddened from her desperate effort to hold back the tears and now they shone like the surface of spring water reflecting the radiance of the moon. Gently I stroked the strands of her hair behind her ear, worrying that I might shatter her. I leaned my forehead against hers, looked deep into her eyes and exhaled my desperate breath. It was hard for me as well to carry the burden of the hero, when all I wanted to be was a simple knight from Hateno, living modestly and untroubled with my family._

_I noticed a heavy tear running down my cheek and how tenderly Zelda wiped it away and looked sorrowfully into my eyes, tears gathering at the edges of the corners of her eyes._

_“Shhh, Zelda mark my words. I will follow you into any darkness, however dangerous and hopeless,” I whispered against her lips, but before I could give in to her pleading eyes and break the chivalric oath, I reached into the water for her legs and lifted her into my arms. I stomped through the hip-high water, shifting my weight with each step, deliberate, so that I wouldn’t fall into the wet with her._

“Link? Are you all right? You just said my name and then spoke of dangerous darkness… isn’t it safe here?”

Her concerned voice snapped me out of my reminiscence. My heart was pounding and my breaths were heavier than usual.

_‘What was that just now? It felt like I was there again!’ it flashed through my mind. 'It felt so real, I could sense her lovely scent!’_

“Link!”

I looked up with a jolt and gazed into wide-open eyes. In the shadow of the rain clouds and her hood, her normally emerald eyes now shimmered in the dark green of the Gerudo Desert plants. Not sure I was back in reality, I squinted my eyes and shook my head slightly to clear my head.

“Forgive me princess. I saw a vision of sorts, I’m not entirely sure though, it felt like I experienced it once. If I startled you by talking while I was doing it, I’m sorry. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before, at least there was no one close enough to say it did.”

I saw her looking at me curiously and puzzled, but she didn’t ask what it was about. She always gave me the space I needed to open up on my own, which I appreciated about her. Only once had she pushed me to give her an answer to my silent behaviour before the calamity, but after that she began to understand me even without words. I didn’t even know if she could remember it, if it was really a memory and if I had just fantasised it, which wouldn’t necessarily make it more pleasant to tell her that I was having strangely intimate dreams about her.

She gave me an encouraging smile and I returned it with the same. But then her pale lips caught my eye and abruptly stopped her mare while I signalled my mustang to halt.

“Let’s rest in the old barn up ahead, our horses need a rest. The rain is draining their strength too.” If I had told her to take a break, she would have looked at me defiantly and ridden on without me. But so I made her pay more attention to the feelings of her companion animal and secretly persuaded her to warm up.

In the old barn we found some hay, which of course we scattered on the ground together to give us and the horses a dry and pleasant-smelling place to lie down. Altay and Himawari lay down on the hay mats that Zelda and I had laboriously scattered, almost as if we had agreed. We looked at each other simultaneously and smiled at the cheeky behaviour of our animal companions.

While I knelt down next to Altay, I asked Zelda to sit down next to me, between both of our horses. I dried and cleaned Altay’s coat as much as I could with a scrap of cloth, while Zelda took off her mare Himawari’s saddle and groomed her. It was quiet yet comfortable between us. We heard only the pounding rain hitting the wooden façade and the sleepy breathing of our horses. Even though the unpleasant wet cold came in through the lack of a door, I felt myself getting toasty warm. I turned my head to Zelda to make sure she was warming up. Leaning against Himawari, she zapped through the Sheikah Stone, ignoring her reddened fingers. Sighing, I put down my master sword and shield, took off my hood and tunic and laid both on the ground to dry. As I thought about building a small fire, I felt her gaze on the back of my neck. She stared at me with her mouth slightly open while I looked at her questioningly.

But then I realised that she was looking at me somewhat absent-mindedly and she was looking through me, to a time that had long since passed. 'Did the scars on my body, trigger the memory of the day of my defeat?’

Carefully, I touched her on the shoulder. “'Zelda, I am here, I am alive and it is because of you. Please come back to me. Zelda!”

She blinked hard, pushing tears from her eyes.

“Link? Oh, by Hylia, I’m so glad you’re alive!” she trilled between tears and a relieved laugh as she fell around my arms, throwing me onto my back with them.

I hardly dared move, my arms hovering discreetly over her back as she snuggled closer and closer to me, hiding her face against my neck. I shouldn’t think about how it felt for me, no, I wasn’t allowed to think about it. But I could not deny that I was deeply relaxed at that moment.

Relieved, she sighed against my neck and looked up into my eyes. At first she looked at me contentedly and even played with the strands of my hair, but suddenly this veil before her eyes disappeared and the expression in them became clear, like a cloudless sky.

She startled to her feet, fell to the side and held a hand in front of her sensuous mouth.

“Link! I’m sorry… I… I don’t even know why I did that!”

Slowly, I sat up and run a hand through my hair, troubled. From the looks of it, her soul still couldn’t distinguish what time she was in, due to the hundred year seal and the loss of space and time. I just knew I had to help her break out of this darkness, as I had promised in my vision. I let out a loud sigh and gave her a soft, honest smile.

“It’s okay. Whenever you need my warmth, don’t hold back.” I slid close to Altay and leaned my back against him. He lifted his heavy head briefly and looked at me sleepily, but when I stroked his face he settled back to sleep. I turned my attention back to Zelda, who still looked confused.

Then I took the initiative and tapped my chest to show her that she could lean against me.

Slightly uncertain, she joined me and tentatively rested her head on my chest.

“It feels like a miracle to hear your strong heart beating in your chest. The last time I heard it, you were… you….” she whispered weakly. Just the thought of the word 'dying’ caused her tremendous grief.

I felt that she was no longer herself; more fragile, more sensitive and full of sorrow. Her soul was shattered, and it hurt in every inch of my body. I felt her shoulders begin to shake, again struggling with her heart.

It had only been two days since her rescue from Gannon’s clutches and yet she expected far too much of herself.

I pulled her onto my lap and tenderly lifted her face with one finger, I leaned my forehead against hers and sighed. At last, I was no longer bound by an oath.

With my fingertips on her chin, I stroked her soft, pure skin, her jaw, her cheeks, eyes, nose and finally I stopped at her lips. She relaxed noticeably and leaned closer to me.

“Whatever darkness you are in, however dangerous and hopeless, I will follow you there and save you,” I breathed against her lips. My heart pounded and my breath trembled, I wanted to take away her pain, to help her heal. One last time I looked into her emerald green tortured eyes and closed the gap to her soft lips with mine.

I kissed her with the thirst of a desert wanderer who finally found water and the tenderness of snowflakes touching the ground.

Zelda interrupted our kiss; shaky breathing, she whispered my name.

It was all I could hear, nor did the drumming of the rain on the roofs reach me, nor the soft snoring of our horses, only her breath whispering, I once vowed the same words in the sacred spring of power. 

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Twitter @freshbreeze18 / Tumblr @freshbreezesworld
> 
> for more Zelink content!


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